Observational Taxonomy for Children

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Recommended: observation at preschool for ages from 4-5

Observational taxonomy as it relates to the nature of early social interaction, is a classification system that uses a code of different behaviors that are seen when observing children during play and non-play and is further divided into cognitive and social categories.
Amongst the many theorists, Mildred Parten and Jean Piaget are significant to the field of early observational studies comprising of children in the free play atmosphere. Parten asserted that social participation amongst preschool aged children amplified as the child’s age increased (Parten 1932). To support her logic she categorized play into six distinct categories of social participation which include unoccupied behavior, solitary play, onlooker behavior, parallel play, associative play and cooperative play (Parten 1932). In particular, Parten designates solitary play as the child who plays away from other children at a distance of 3 feet or greater. For instance, this can be depicted through a scenario where there are a group of kids playing with a ball and a single child sitting away from this crowd is intermingling simply with a doll. Conversely, parallel play as emphasized by Parten is when a child plays self-sufficiently, yet comes within feet of the others while practicing a similar if not the same act. Furthermore, Parten describes group play as when children all play collectively for a mutual intent. By carefully studying and understanding these social play to a great extent, one can see that there is certainly an overlap between social and cognitive play. Parten observed that parallel play begin from 2 ½ to 3 ½ years and associative play from 3 ½ to 4 ½. Contrasting Parten, Piaget a cognitive theorist strongly proclaimed that play was based on the sens...

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...d controlling to her classmates. She ran ahead one of them and got a piece of tape. Similarly, Robert when told to clean up and go to the carpet becomes rebellious by intentionally dropping the glue and laughing which he was told not to do in the beginning.
The difference between Robert and Ariel in my perception could be as a result of maturity and culture. We learn from Parten that the older children get the more socially incline they become. Culture plays an important role in the development of socializing behaviors in children. According to Piaget’s cognitive theory children learn what they see. It is through our culture that we learn how girls are to behave and how boys are to behave. It is also when we acquire what the norms are for our culture. The culture aspect to socialization is the key aspect to development in every human being during the early years.

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